Articles

Partners Paul Karlsgodt and Patrick Lewis and Associate Bonnie McNee authored “Statistics in Class Actions: Is the Computer Algorithm Era upon Us? (Part I and Part II),” published the American Bar Association. The two-part series offers a discussion of the practical implications of using statistical methods in litigation.

The authors write about the potential for a legal system in which justice for thousands, or even millions, of litigants can be handed out with the push of a button. A system where a computer algorithm short-circuits the need for plaintiffs to pursue claims in individual lawsuits. A system where both a defendant’s liability and the damages of an entire class of plaintiffs are determined statistically, rather than with human witnesses and documentary evidence. This system is the ultimate dream for plaintiffs’ class action lawyers and the worst nightmare for businesses, but is it a pipe dream or a near reality?

Part II is included in ABA’s Section of Litigation Summer 2018, Volume 18, Issue 1, and ABA Section of Litigation.